KATE PIERSON
Kate Pierson (born April 27, 1948) is an American vocalist, lyricist, and one of the singers and founding members of The B-52’s. A multi-instrumentalist, she plays guitar, bass and various keyboard instruments. In the B-52’s, she has performed alongside Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneider, Ricky Wilson, and Keith Strickland. (More from Wikipedia)
There is more fun to be had in the rock world also, as opposed to actual laughs. The B-52’s is one of the greatest fun bands ever, and they back it up with killer music as well. One of their early hits was “Rock Lobster” (1978); from Wikipedia: “Its lyrics include nonsensical lines about a beach party and excited rants about real or imagined marine animals – ‘There goes a dog-fish, chased by a cat-fish, in flew a sea robin, watch out for that piranha, there goes a narwhal, here comes a bikini whale!’ – accompanied by absurd, fictional noises attributed to them (provided by Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson — Pierson providing the higher-pitched noises and Wilson the lower-pitched ones); the chorus consists of the words ‘Rock Lobster!’ repeated over and over on top of a keyboard line.”
(March 2016)
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Iggy Pop’s solo career is uneven by all accounts (even his own). I remember the Village Voice review of my personal favorite among his solo albums, Brick by Brick (1990) stating that this was “Iggy Pop’s best album since . . . well, since the last time you cared”. The album features a stellar duet with Kate Pierson of the B-52’s, “Candy” – as Iggy Pop’s only song to hit the Top 40, “Candy” remained on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts for 17 weeks, reaching the Top 5. Both singers have spoken parts during the song, and Pierson’s Georgia twang is a true delight.
Writing for Allmusic, Mark Deming notes: “Brick by Brick refined Iggy [Pop]’s gifts without watering them down, adding a polish that focused his talents rather than blurring them. Working with a mixture of L.A. session heavyweights (Waddy Wachtel, David Lindley) and rock stars paying their respects (Slash and Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses, Kate Pierson from the B-52’s), Brick by Brick leans to tough, guitar-based hard rock, leavened with a few more pop-oriented tunes that still speak of a hard-nosed lyrical approach. But the triumph here is Iggy’s; he’s rarely sung better on record, finding a middle ground between precision and abandon that honors both and surrenders to neither, and as a lyricist he reached a new level of maturity that proved he could expand his boundaries without losing touch with his roots. . . . Smart, tough, and impressive on all counts, Brick by Brick was Iggy Pop’s strongest work since Lust for Life, and marked a new high point in his career as a songwriter.”
(March 2017)
